Male Politicians And Sex

Are All Male Politicians "Weiners"?

Power is sexy! Add to that a politician’s access to female staffers (no pun intended) and supporters, and there will be the usual male libido being led by the “little brain." Given their power, ego and natural propensity to catcall/boast about their conquests, male politicians have the potential to seriously misuse social-media platforms, and Anthony Weiner is no exception.

Like so many before him, Weiner has given his career the shaft with the latest round of digital goofery on Capitol Hill. Not since Nixon’s blunder with audio tape has technology led to a bigger load of mess for someone foolish enough to leave evidence of his lustful indiscretions.

Weiner, after lying repeatedly about the incident, finally admitted that the photo of bulging boxer briefs was indeed his package of shame. The messy load of lies didn’t end with just that photo, as he admitted to using social media to engage in “inappropriate contact” with six women over the course of three years. He may have been drawn in by their tweets or came upon their Facebook profiles, but his lack of control proves that Washington needs parental locks on every single computer.

When former president Bill Clinton got caught with his hand in the cookie jar, we were spared the photos of stained dresses, soaked cigar ends and tweets of dirty talk between the Arkansas dog hound and his plump little Oval Office intern. Charlie Sheen may tweet about “winning,” but one gags when thinking of the phrases Bill might have coined on Twitter or the photos sexted to Monica. Thank goodness social media wasn't around for Clinton and other politicians.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised. Men will be men, and social media has only created yet another avenue for us to act like complete idiots, and the powerful horn-dogs in Washington are not immune to the draw of the web. Every day, some man hits send, and his junk is wing-wanging around the web. When a celebrity does the same, it becomes a DVD, and sales are bigger than Beatles albums. When a politician does it, we are in shock and disgust. We hold them to a higher standard — one without desire, lust and sex. They are like our parents: We know by the number of siblings we have that they "did it" that many times, but we just don’t want to think about it.

Among the women Weiner contacted, Meagan Broussard told ABC News that Weiner "friended" her on Facebook after she commented on one of his speeches posted online on April 20. They exchanged more than 100 messages, and Weiner constantly tried to steer the conversation toward sex. What were those conversations and how did he try to steer them?

“Gee, representative Weiner. I really <3’d your speech!”

“Maybe you could give an oral recital to my closest friend and the two nuts he hangs around with? ;)”

“Is he a Senator or someone important?”

“Well, he’s ready to fill an important opening! ;)”

“I’d like to come to Washington one day and give you some ideas that would help the country!”

“I’ll personally poll you! ;)”

“Could you get me onto the congressional floor?”

“Oh, you bet, but we might have to use the back door! ;)”

What is truly amazing is that the men we entrust our nation to don’t comprehend the simple fact that the digital world of social media is not an erasable marker board, and they have never heard of a “retweet” or that other people can click on their feed profile and see everything they have tweeted. I’m willing to bet they don’t reset their Facebook privacy status every time it changes so any person or political rival can see their photos. Is it possible Mark Zuckerberg orders Facebook staff to change the settings every now and then, unannounced, for just this purpose? Makes Zuckerberg and the infuriating changes on Facebook a little more palatable, doesn’t it?

Weiner said he used his home computer and personal Blackberry, not government computers, in his exchanges with the women. But that may not protect him from House rules that say a member "shall conduct himself at all times in a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House."

“Reflect creditably on the House"? The way politics are run these days, I find a man acting out on his primal urges more credible than many of the laws introduced by other “upright” members of the House. I just don’t want to see any pictures of them being “upright.”